Preliminary evaluation of robotic needle distal tip repositioning

Advances in medical imaging now provide detailed images of solid tumors inside the body and miniaturized energy delivery systems enable tumor destruction through local heating powered by a thin electrode. We have developed a robot for accurately repositioning the distal tip of a medical instrument such an ablation probe to adjacent points within tissue. The position accuracy in ballistics gelatin was evaluated in a 2D experimental setup with a digital SLR camera that was fixed to a rig that also contained the gelatin. The robot was mounted to the rig in such a way that the stylet was deployed in a plane parallel the camera’s lens. A grid paper attached to the back of the box containing the gelatin provided a stationary reference point for each of the pictures taken and also served as a coordinate system for making measurements. The measurement repeatability error was found by taking a stylet tip position measurement five times for two different pictures and found to be 0.26 mm. For a stylet with a radius of curvature of 31.5 mm and a diameter of 0.838 mm, the targeting accuracy was found to be 2.5 ± 1.4 mm at points that were approximately 38 mm lateral from the cannula axis.